Be Careful Out There

I am reasonably certain that all of us have enjoyed this mild summer. However, a couple things to keep in mind for the outdoorsman is that not only do us humans enjoy the mild summers but so do our 8 legged and legless co-inhabitants. I am speaking of snakes, spiders, and ticks. Most people are already conscious of snakes when in the woods or streamside. My experience has been that they tend to congregate alongside water sources, and this year there is plenty of water to go around. Also, the frequency of venomous snakes in the Smokies appears to be on the incline this year after two consecutive years of drought. However, the wild pig population is doing their best to reduce the population of snakes in certain areas of the park. Hard to imagine that wild pigs dine on snakes, that is just hard for me to grasp.

A couple of lesser considered threats are spiders and ticks. Spiders are much more easily avoided since you can see and feel their webs, so this lends them to detection more easily. However, ticks are sneaky little buggers. Not only are they sneaky, but they can carry serious infection with them. While not as immediately dangerous as some of their spider counterparts, their damage is more of a delayed impact. Two such infections are Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, the latter of which my boss's wife just contracted after finding hundreds of seed ticks on her. All of these critters thrive in mild climates, and this past summer was the definition of a mild summer. Hopefully we will have a really cold winter to eradicate some of our creepy crawling friends, so that next year we don't have a population explosion.

Some steps to take to prevent potential disaster:
1. Wear long pants, hiking boots, and long socks
2. Wear a hat to prevent spiders and ticks from dropping into you hair
3. Spray your clothing with a tick spray like Repel Permanone
4. Watch where you are stepping, snakes typically aren't aggressive unless they feel threatened.
5. Be aware of your surroundings. If you find yourself in a tightly confined area take extra precaution. It is commonly said that you can smell a copperhead den, and that they smell very similar to a freshly cut cucumber or squash.
6. If rock hopping in the river, realize that snakes like to sunbathe just as much as we do. They like to lay on top of rocks, so please "look before you leap".

As summer comes to a close, I expect many people to get out and enjoy the typically wonderful East TN weather and scenery. However, the snake and insect activity will continue to be high until we begin to have consistent near freezing nighttime temps. So please be careful out there, and I hope some of these steps will help you prevent having a sour end to what began as an enjoyable experience. If you think of any other steps that I have forgotten, please feel free to add them in the comments section.

Tremont Yesterday

Yesterday, I left work around 11:30 to meet a co-worker and fishing buddy to do some small stream fishing. Dave, who is also a ChemE and frequents the Clinch with me, had only fished the Smokies once before. So, we figured that with high water on all the tailwaters, we may as well give the mountains a chance. We took our time getting to Townsend and chatted with Byron in Little River Outfitters for awhile. While there we picked up Jim Casada's new book, which I will offer a review on at a later date due to the 400+ pages of information.

We arrived at our fishing destination above Tremont around 2:30, and surprisingly we only saw one other fisherman on the way in.

Dave Gearing Up

Middle Prong was not my first choice for a destination, but I figured it would provide much more opportunity in the event that the mountains were crowded on this holiday weekend. We got into the water, and I hooked up with a small bow on the first pocket I fished. This is one thing you don't see on the tailwaters, the very bright colors of these wild trout. Sorry for the lack of picture quality, but I left the DSLR at home and took along my el cheap-o Olympus 740.

First Fish

Dave was working a nice looking run across from me, but he was experiencing the same type results that I would for about the next hour or so. Dave was using a foam hopper pattern and I was using a yellow stimulator. We both were getting lots of strikes on the dry, but none were large enough to take it. Finally towards the end of the day, I managed to hook a little bow on the stimulator.

Green Weenie Bow

Fishing was a little slower today than I expected, but the green weenie did perform well for us. There were what appeared to be Tricos everywhere, but I did not have anything small enough to pass for one. I usually have that stuff in my tailwater box, and didn't take it with me yesterday. It is quite obvious that I need to work on my small stream skills.

Dave Fishing a Run

On the drive out, we saw three other fishermen. That is significantly lower than what I expected. The last time Amy and I drove up to the trailhead we counted around 13 fishermen from the Institute up, and that is way too crowded for my comfort. I do need to take advantage of this wonderful resource that we have so close to home. Not just the fishing, but the scenery, history, wildlife, and flora. It truly is a very relaxing experience, and I hope to take advantage of this resource more often.

A Little Saturday R&R

I have been planning on heading to the Smokies for some fishing the past two Fridays. Well, both times outside factors have influenced my plans, and prevented me from going. Yesterday, I did manage to make it to the mountains with Amy and Trey, and I even brought along my rod for good measure. At one point, Trey was asleep and I crept out to do some fishing while Amy set with him. Just as I closed the door, I heard "Daaadaaa?". So, I got back in and carried on with our driving and sight-seeing. On the positive side, I did manage to see my first ever bear in the Smokies. Hard to believe that after making hundreds of trips camping, hiking, and fishing that I had never seen one until yesterday. No pics of the bears(my 50mm lens just didn't have the reach), but maybe I will post some other pics from that trip later. Enough talking about yesterday, this post is supposed to be about today's fishing adventure.

I have been really wanting to get back out to the Clinch again after the last few barn-burner trips. The previous trips I had fantastic days, and seemed that I could do nothing wrong. Not only was the fishing good, but the quality of fish was not bad either. So, I woke up this morning at 6:00 and headed out the door around 6:20 to get to the river. When I arrived at 7:00, I found the parking lot empty. PERFECT! That is what I like to see. I enjoy fishing with friends and offering advice to people usually, but sometimes I just enjoy the solitude of the river and the fish. After gearing up and walking about 1/2 mile downstream to my favorite areas I began fishing around 7:45. There was absolutely no surface activity when I got to the river, but that didn't affect my game plan. Today my plan was to work some deeper runs in an attempt to pick up some of the larger fish that broke me off last time. So, I put on my double nymph rig, set my indicator around 5', and started probing the deep runs. The water was still extremely high since TVA did not turn off two generators until 1AM, so the water level was still a bit tricky to navigate.

Private Driveway to River

Things started off a little slow, but I managed to bring my first fish to the net around 9:00. It was a very nice fish of around 17", not fat but long. As the day progressed I began to see some other people making their way into the river well upstream of me, and another older fella who came in below me. He was also hooking up frequently as well, and they all appeared to be the average 11 to 13" bows that this area is loaded with. During the next three hours I managed to land about 5 more fish, and had a couple more break me off in the tangle of log jams that cover the river bottom in this area. My numbers were off a little today, but the quality made up for the lack of quantity. I ended up landing 6 fish today, 2 of which being 17" and one pushing 16". The others were the standard sized bows and even a 10" brookie thrown in for good measure. I really tried catching a decent brown today, but it just wasn't meant to be.

First Fish - Skinny 17" Bow

Another Good Rainbow

Can't wait to get back out there, and hopefully TVA will offer up some better schedules to allow me to fish some on Friday afternoons. Hopefully all the rain this year will not lead to a poor spawning season due to high water flows. TVA has another couple months to get things to normal before that becomes a concern.

Until next time,
Tight Lines and God Bless

A short hike along Porter's Creek

Today Jeff and I got a house pass from the wives and went to the Smokies for a little hike. We left the house around 8:30 and hit up the Cracker Barrel to fill up before the hike. We eventually came to our destination at 11:00, and found the parking lot almost empty. This is part of the reason we chose this trail for today, is due to it not being a very crowded trail and is paralleled for a long distance by Porter's Creek. This trail is in the Greenbrier area, and is most notably overshadowed by the Ramsey's Cascade trail less than a mile away. Ramsey's is also a beautiful trail that reaches it climax with a very tall set of cascades. Similar to Ramsey's Cascades, Porter's Creek is a much more enjoyable hike during seasons with significant rainfall. Luckily this is such a year.

For this trip, I left my fishing gear at home since I wanted to concentrate primarily on just enjoying the hike and doing some photography. Otherwise, I would be too distracted by each run and trying to spot every fish holding rock. However, this is definitely a stream I would like to take a rod back to and see what I can find hiding out behind the large rocks that dot the stream bed. Until that time, some of my photos will just work to fuel the anticipation of that trip.

Here are some photos from today's hike, I hope you enjoy them.

Nashville and Caney Weekend

This weekend Amy and I went to Nashville for our 4th anniversary. While there we enjoyed some peace and quiet while we left Trey at home with family. We had an amazing dinner on Friday night of fried green tomatoes w/ a corn and Jonah crab salsa, oysters bienville, and antelope steak over a bed of wild grains, tomatoes, and huckleberries. Absolutely outstanding. Saturday we basically spent the day relaxing and starting to really miss the tiny kid.

On the trip back to Knoxville Sunday we had made plans to meet David Knapp from the Trout Zone and do a little fishing. We got a late start and made it to the river around 9:30. I got in the water and found David in short order. This was my second trip to the river ever, and I have to say this time left a much better taste in my mouth than the first. The first trip was way over-crowded and the bait fishermen really got me agitated. Today, the river was surprisingly empty, and I saw some sizeable browns rising right in front of the boat ramp. I only got to fish for around an hour, but managed to land 2 and stuck one that was pretty nice as well. I am already planning out my next trip to the Caney, and hoping for a chance to connect with some of those larger browns I saw today.

Above is a sample video taken on the river. Nothing spectacular, just an idea of what the camcorder can do. This was taken in full auto, so it could be optimized if it had been taken in manual mode.

Until next time, tight lines and God bless.

Some new purchases

Yesterday I splurged and made quite a few impulse purchases. Interestingly they were all photo related. I bought an external flash for my D40, to be used primarily as a bounce flash while shooting indoor photos. I also bought a new camera sling bag that can carry my D40 with a long range zoom, 2 mid range lenses, external flash, all cords and accessories and it comes with a waterproof cover for those venturing outdoors. I hope to have a review of it after next Saturday when I take it on a hike in the Smokies. The final impulse buy was one my wife and I made together. We have been thinking about getting a digital comcorder for a while now, and broke down and bought one last night. We found a full HD digicam on clearance at HHGregg lastnight for 50% off. We couldn't help but snatch it up. This will be used 90% of the time to record the little man's progress, but I imagine it may make itself out to the river with us at some future destination.

Stay tuned for the reviews.

Gear Review: Korkers Kling-On Soles

I recently purchased a pair of new soles for my Korkers wading boots. My previous pair of boots had studded felt soles, and I loved the secure footing they provided on the Clinch and South Holston rivers. When Daniel at LRO told me about the new soles being released, I just had to have a pair. The new soles have rubber grippy protrusions along with metal studs. This allows the boot to dig into the Didymo covered rocks and ledges and therefore provides better grip.

I wore these boots during my last outage on the Clinch, and my footing was much more positive than when I was using the traditional felt soles that come with the boots at the time of purchase. I was shoal hopping a couple of times since I typically fish in and around deeper water that most people ignore. My foot did not slip once on any of the rock snot covered rocks. Also, walking into the river requires scurrying down a muddy cow trampled bank, and the design of these soles allows for excellent grip outside of the water as well. I can see these soles coming in very handy for people who do a lot of hiking and fishing the Smokies.

I can't say enough about the Korkers products, and if you are looking for a new pair of wading boots give them a look.

Korkers Kling-On

Typical Clinch Summer Duldrums......NOT!

Made it out to the river today for the first time in what seems like forever. I didn't really know what to expect, except for no sulfurs to be present. So, I tied up a bunch of midge patterns in an effort to restock my supply before going, and it is a good thing that I did. The fishing was excellent, and the catching was probably the best I have had all year. The fish were in their typical summer lies, but they were very aggressive. And not just the 11 - 12" bows, I am also talking about some of the big boys. I landed 3 that were in the 16 - 17" range, and numerous in the 12 - 15" range. I also had three break me off that I didn't even get a chance to see. It was like I hooked a freight train each time. One of them managed to peel nearly all of my fly line off before I even knew what happened, just to wrap me up in a log jam and break me off. The cool thing is that all 3 of those bruisers came from the same 25 yard section of water. I will be trying that section out again. I will stop talking and share some pics.

First Fish of the day - 11" Bow

Last Fish of the Day - A hefty 16" Brown

I used them today for the first time, so stay tuned for a product review of the Korkers Kling-On soles.